Are you singing the US National Anthem now? Sometimes titling a blog post is obvious and sometimes it’s challenging. Sometimes, as I sit down to my computer to write something here, it just appears out of no where. Tonight, the first line of the national anthem appeared. The question is, is it relevant?
With everything going on with my daughter’s eyes from a technical perspective, I haven’t spent a lot of time talking about the observational side of her vision. What can she see? If she were older she would be able to describe what was happening. She may not be completely aware of how her vision is changing over time. Is she able to compare what she can see now with what she remembers seeing before? What we can tell is she doesn’t want to talk about it, so she is aware things have changed and she can’t do or see things she could before.
Here are some examples of things we’ve observed. And when I tell you these things, keep in mind some of the time, small children just don’t want to answer questions, so we’re guessing only a portion of these observations are accurate.
- In the dark we talked about car lights. I asked her if she could see red lights and white lights and if she could tell me where she saw them (red lights being brake lights in front of us and white lights being the oncoming lanes of the highway.) She could see the red lights, but couldn’t discern the yellow flashing turn signal.
- Road signs (huge, big and small) she can sometimes see them, just before they pass us. She can get the color correct some of the time, but if the sign has words or other things on in large contrast, the sign usually is “white” to her as the colors blur together.
- She doesn’t recognize people from far away or even middle-range. If you get close to her (don’t speak or she’ll know it’s you from your voice) and she’ll recognize you and not be even remotely surprised that you’re there.
- She knows where to look for an elevator button and is happy to press the up button or the button for floor number three, but she can’t read the numbers on the buttons some of the time. She got confused the other day because the button labels were round and black and to the side of the steel button on a steel panel. She was only able to see the contrast of the label and not the row of buttons.
- She couldn’t see the peas on the counter today at her place. She was looking around the counter with her hands to try and find the remaining ones to eat.
- She will use an iPad for a time, but pulls it very close to her face, usually within three inches.
- She has been willing to watch some television, but we’ve found a way to pull a bar stool up closer to the television over the fireplace. We’ve heard her middle-range vision is better than her near vision.
- She was on the play set in the back yard and I was on the porch. I asked her, “how many arms do I have up?” She responded, “two!” then, “one!” then, “three!” I counted that one as a big, “I don’t know.”
When I read over this list it sounds fairly depressing, but she is getting enough information to function in her daily life on most levels. People don’t know she has a visual issue going on most of the time unless they’re around her for a while. I fully plan on putting up a version of this post at some point in the near future, listing all the things above that she can do with ease now that her eyes have healed.
The Big Boy Update: My son explained to me you call the bad guys “mega monsters” when they’re hugenormous.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: I got to sit in a car beside my daughter the other day. Typically, my children are in the back seat and the adults are in the front or third row of the minivan. This past weekend we put one of the car seats in the third row and I got to sit beside her. She thought it was loads of fun to sit beside an adult.
Fitness Update: Measly two miles, but I did run some of it carrying fourteen pounds of extra weights. That’s not fun.
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